Electrical – the purpose of these removable “collars” on ceramic light fixtures

electricaljunction-boxlight-fixture

This fixture happens to be plastic, but all my ceiling juntion box mounted 600w rated light fixtures have a removable collar. I don't see the point in this extra part. Is there some sort of shade I can install? I assume if you had a heavy bulb that you'd just use an E39 size socket instead of the E26 socket.

Removed collar

Best Answer

It looks like the metal screw socket would be touchable without the plastic ring in place. When the bulb is lit, I believe that would be hot (energized).

Since they may use the same base for different size screw fittings, the ring is possibly designed to protect from shock hazard but being a separate component allows the base to accommodate various sized sockets.

The specific scenario I can think of when this would be important is when screwing in a new bulb to replace a dead one. The circuit could unknowingly be on (since the bulb is dead), and you could get a shock when the bulb made the circuit.